coming up, religious responses to the boston bombing. and lucky severson on faith leaders calling for action to protect the environment. >> announcer: major funding for "religion and ethics news weekly" is provided by the lillian endowment dedicated to its founder's interest in religion, community development and education.

additional funding also proved by mutual of america. designing customized individual and group retirement products, that's why we're you're retirement company. and the corporation for public broadcasting. . welcome, i'm bob apper nathy. it's good to have you with us. in the wake of this week's series of events in boston, people of faith around the world have been offering prayers for victims of the bombing and for the entire city. president obama spoke at an interfaith service thursday boston's cathedral of the holy cross. >> you've shown us, boston. that in the face of evil, americans will lift up what's good. in the face of cruelty, we will choose compassion. >> we have more on religious responses in boston.

♪ ♪ >> at thursday's interfaith service, local religious leaders prayed for the healing of their city in the wake of the attks. >> we must overcome the culture of death by promoting a culture of life. a profound respect for each and every human being made in the image and likeness of god. we must cultivate a desire to give our lives to the service of others. >> within moments of the bombing, clergy and faith-based groups mobilize to do what they could to help. as victims of the bombing were brought to tufts medical center, interfaith chaplain mary lou was on site to offer counseling and prayer. she said one injured woman expressed what many were feeling. >> she said the hardest thing about this is, that some human being can treat other human beings like this. i just don't understand it. >> indeed, after a tragedy like

the bombing, clergy often hear age-old questions about the nature of good and evil, suffering and the existence of a loving god. >> most of the time i think pele deep down are asking for an answer. they're asking for you to fight with them, to wrestle with the questions with them. but we truly believe that god is with us when that happens. and so we're not suffering alone. that we have someone who loves us beyond all measure. >> rabbi ytzak is helping to oversee counseling for first responders. >> it's important for people to understand once they have fulfilled their duty to the citizenry, the people that they're serving, protecting and saving and making to feel safe and secure, they need to face any feelings that they may be having as well. >> he says many of the victims

and first responders are still in shock and will deal with the theological questions later. even then, he says, there will be little ultimate satisfaction. >> the macro answer is we don't know god's plan. i don't know of anybody that god has called and said, here's the deal. so there'sn unknown. and prayer and meditation can help bring a sense of calm. >> boston and across the u.s. were quick to condemn the bombings. the islamic society of boston cultural center says all of the members of his mosque felt the attack. >> they felt violated and they felt that the sacredness of the city was violated. and the trust of our populace was violated. there's a sense of wanting this person to be caught and subjected to justice. >> web helped to organize the interfaith prayer service and

urged his congregation to donate blood and find other ways to serve those who are suffering. >> reminding people in god's wisdom and remining that we are not allowed to use his wisdom to be placid or inactive. we have to go out and help and work, be positive, stay involved. >> some faith groups found unusual ways to offer help. church charities dispatched the canine comfort dog ministry. >> people many times, all ages, will talk to a dog. before they'll talk to a person. >> the ministry took the especially-trained dogs to boston hospital to visit victims and their families and set up a petting station at a local church. ministry leaders had also taken the dogs to newtown, connecticut, after the school shooting. >> whether it's a bombing or a shooting or a divorce or death, whatever happens in life, which life throws a lot of stuff at us, they bring the mercy and the compassion of christ and comfort to people. that need to work through

whatever it there facing. >> rabbi says the bombing had a profound spiritual impact on the city. >> we rely on a sense of knowing if i do this, and then this is what's going to happen. and so that's what gets upset, it upsets the balance. in these critical incidents. and that's what needs to be restored as quickly and as easily as possible. >> he and other religious leaders urge the community to come together in grief and then move forward with a new sense of ho. i'kim laon reporting. we want to talk now via skype with reverend samuel loi, the priest in charge of trinity episcopal church in copley square in boston where the bombs went off, we're old friends. sam, welcome, what can a pastor say to his people at time like this, a terrible time like this? and what are people saying to

you? >> i think the pastor first needs to acknowledge what a trauma this has been and listen carefully to what people are saying. and what i hear a lot is -- a see of, of the fragility of people's lives and how sense how vulnerable they've been. so what i've, what i have been doing and will continue to do as i'm with my community is to remind them of the core convictions of the power behind all of life. that is sustaining us and our faith in a god who goes with us even through the toughest of times and promises always to bring healing beyond the crisis at hand. >> what about the old questions of where was god in this. and how could god haveermted so much suffering? are you hearing that at all? >> i'm not hearing it as much as i did after 9/11. it's more people a sense of fragility, but one of those questions come, they always invite an explanation of the fact that we are people who have

been given extraordinary freedom. we in this human race. and with that comes enormous possibility of love and delight and also the kind of terror we've seen. >> and also comes the ability to do terrible things. >> that's right. to do unimaginable damage. >> people around the country are being told by officials and pastors to pray for the people of boston. what do you suggest we pray for? >> prayer is an enormously important gift in this time. because it binds all of us together as a country. i think it's a great gift that people are praying for the people of boston. i would ask them to pray for courage and strength as we continue to make it, make our way through a time oftrauma. d ask em to pray for a sense of our own connectedness to each other. and i would ask them especially to pray for the magnificent police, law enforcement people,

and first attenders who have done an amazing job and continue to be doing crucial work, they are a model for us all. >> but the thing i'm interested in, that the primary thing that you have been hearing is, is that fear. and what do you say about how ith n cope with that? >> well one of the first things i say is that fear loves isolation. and what we need to do is be in touch with each other. so i'm encouraging my community to text and email and call people they know and love and care about. get together as they can. because we are reminders to each other of the faith we carry and the trust we've known and the love we've known through the years that gives us the courage to continue on in what we're doing. and second thing i do is i try to send them,end the en back to their old scriptures

where the psalm is the lord is my shepherd, i shall not want. >> anything good that you see coming out of the response to this terrible thing? amazing, there's been immense good. when the sky is at its darkest, we can see the most light. and this dark time, we see the love and care that emers. and i've been tnking a lot about what mr. rodgers said in response to 9/11. someone asked limb what his advice was. and he said, keep your eye on the helpers. and as you look at the helpers, you're seeing this as a story of enormous courage and compassion. and devotion that makes you proud to be a bostonian and proud to be a human being and grateful for a god of love working through all of this. >> reverend samuel lloyd, the priest in charge of trinity

episcopal church inopley square in boston. thank you. >> you're welcome. >> faith groups also offered prayers this week for victims of the massive explosion at a fertilizer plant in texas. many people were killed and more than 150 wounded. and an independent nonpartisan report released this week says there is indisputable evidence that the united states engaged in torture in the years following the 9/11 attack. th athomong them a member of the bush administration, cited detailed discussions involving president george w. bush and his top advisers on quote the wisdom, propriety and legality of inflicting pain and torment on detainees. the task force found no firm or persuasive evidence that the

c.i.a.'s interrogation methods provided useful information that could not have been obtained by other means. pope francis has expressed his suppor for the controversial crackdown on american nuns begun under benedict xvi. last year the vatican charged the leadership conference of women religious, the largest organization of u.s. nuns, with quote serious doctrinal problems. in a meeting with the group this week, vatican official said francis confirmed those findings. we have a lucky severson story about religious environmentalists in the past and still, many people of faith havepposed the environmental movement quoting bible verses about mankind's god-given dominion over all the earth. or they deny the need to protect the environment on the grounds that the end times are imminent, so why worry about nature. but now, for many people of

faith, liberal and conservative, of many traditions, being good stewards of god's creation has become an urgent cause. >> this would have been an unlikely occurrence on only a few years ago. clergy and lay leaders from a broad range of religions across the u.s. converging on capitol hill to lobby congress about climate change and protecting the environment. they're all part of a national organization of faith leaders known as interfaith power and light or ipl. which was founded by reverend sally bingham. an episcopal priest. >> we started out asking congregations to respond to climate change. as more and more religions got involved, we realized what we were actually doing was bringing religions together where they could all agree on something. there were attending the bahai, mormon, catholic, evangelicals,

prestant, jews, muslims, all agreeing with each other, we are the stewards of creation. >> there are now over 14,000 houses of worship in 40 states connected to ipl. places like shalom congregation in maryland. the rabbi says religion is deepening his congregation's concern for the environment. >>ultimately, love of the creator and love of that which god has created are one and the same. if you don't love creation, what does it mean to say that you love god, who so loved creation? >> sara is the director of a washington-area group called green muslims. made up of young professionals like herself. she's an urban planner. >> it's an issue that isn't a priority for a lot of the communities that we see, mosque leaderships are just now starting it talk about it. we see it more and more on university campuses. but it a recent, recent

phenomenon. >> reverend bingham says she became a priest because god called her to speak out on the environment, when no one else was. >> they're afraid to get into the pulpit and talk about something that they really don't know a lot about. how can you sit in a pew and profess a love for god, and then sit back and watch creation be destroyed? these pennsylvania ipo members are practicing what they preach. they bicycle 200 miles from state college, pennsylvania to washington, stopping at churches along the way. they are here to lobby congress to strengthen environmental laws. john is a professor of history and religious studies at penn state. >> you talk to people about their major faith experiences. something like 90% of people will think about something that happened to them out in the woods, on mountain somewhere. somewhere along the beach. something about the natural environment, the environment around us right now. that really speaks to people. and speaks to us about, of a higher power.

>> the green muslim board members meet once a week to discuss teachin from the koran about protecting the earth. sara says the prophet mohammed was a tree hugger literally because he actually hugged a tree after he heard it wailing. >> it just shows so much about his character as a compassionate being and it helps me be more compassionate and to really live more lightly in this world. >> they also get their hands dirty. working at a local farm, cleaning up parks and renting out reusable dinnerware. >> we started renting out reusable dinnerware as a way to get individuals to lessen their waste. so instead of wasting a bunch of styrofoam. we take our table waiware and t it home and wash it. we had 600, 700 people a month are using that.

and that's a lot of waste that was reduced. >> they say it's their faith in scripture and not their politics that drives their views on the environment. >> deuteronomy, chapter 20, verse 19 a law in war time about not cutting down the enemy's trees, even when it could give you military advantage and perhaps even save combatants' lives. we're not allowed to cut down a tree that belongs to the enemy under such dire circumstances, how much more should we not allow trees to be felled simply for the convenience of the international economy? >> very often we have a bigger impact with the congregation by talking to them about do you want to save money on your energy bill? and very seldom does the congregati say oh no. they usually say yes, how do we do that? >> the number of houses of worship that belong to ipl combine their purchasing power to buy cheaper electricity from renewable energy, at rates which can amount to huge savings, especially for the larger churches.

ipl also encourages utilizing renewable energy like the solar panels on the roof of the shalom synagogue. >> we have saved many thousands of dollars over the course of 11 years running this building, because of passive solar technology. because of sensitive lightings that we put in place. it absolutely keeps operating costs down. if you make an investment in something like a really efficient boiler, it makes a tremendous difference. >> we're asking our congregations to serve as examples to the community. and then the hope is that when the religious leader can tell his or her congregation that they're saving money on energy, that people will say, i'll go home and we'll do some of these same things in our homes. >> reverend bingham says in the beginning of her ministry, she faced a lot of resistance. >> i was accused of promoting world government. i was called a communist. i was accused of taking a political issue into the pulpit.

which was highly against anything americans believe in. merging church and state. but i haven't, that hasn't happened in the last five to six years? there's still push-back from churches and groups with religious and political connections, like the conservative evangelical cornwall alliance. >> what we call the green dragon has become one of the greatest threats to society and the church in our day. >> it's twisted view of the world elevates nature, above the needs of people. of even the poorest and the most helpless. with millions falling prey to its spiritual deceptions, the time is now to stand and resist. >> it's complete nan sense. can you go into scripture and find that god put adam in the garden to till it and to keep it. we ar the gardeners, we have not done a very good job.

and i would dispute anything that is behind the green dragon. >> the cornwall alliance produced the resisting the green dragon series and sent it to churches around the country. >> the average poor household spends a much higher percentage of its budget on electricity and other energy sources than does the average middle class or wealthy household. that means that when we raise the price of energy, we're hurting the poor more than we hurt everybody else. >> dave hunter takes a view opposite the cornwall alliance video. he thinks the poor, particularly in other countries will be hurt the most if something is not done about climate change. >> if we don't do anything about climate change, the people who are going to be hit most by that are the people who have the lead. and so it becomes a moral issue. >> climate change is going to cause food scarcity, the likes of which we have never seen, just outside the synagogue, the congregation has built and is

expanding an organic garden, where members are taught how to grow their own vegetables, and donate the harvest to food pantries. observing the sabbath, or shabat did as god did after he created the earth is a way to observe it. >> one day of the week is sabbath, is day of just being, not of doing. it's of stepping back from the rat race of production and consumption. and as jews, it's our most special time. >> sara thinks the cluttered and polluted world around us is a reflection of what's going on inside ourselves. and the best way to find ourselves is in the quiet and beauty of nature. >> when i pray, i feel the most connected when my prayers are outside or when i'm thinking about a natural setting, things like that. i feel god's presence in those

moments, he's actually there all the time. different parts of the faith speak to different people. but that speaks to me. >> on capitol hill, lobbyists from interfaith power and light are becoming a fixture. >> even if they don't america suede them in that meeting, they may next time. if we can point out to skeptical legislators that this is a real issue, it's not going away, they have a more responsibility to serve the american people. and if the american people want climate legislation and want clean air and clean water, they'll come around. >> she says, if enough houses of worship join the effort, interfaith power and light will become a force of nature. for religion and ethics news weekly, i'm lucky everson in washington, d.c.

on our calendar this week, members of the bahai faith celebrate a feast that's a 12-day holiday commemorates a prophet's announcement in 1863, that he was the new messenger of god. > 50 years ago, this april, in birmingham, alabama, martin luther king jr. was arrested for organizing a civil rights demonstration. he spent eight days in jail, and in solitary confinement. it was there that he wrote his classic vigorous defense of nonviolent civil disobedience, his "letter from birmingham jail." this weekend in birmingham, christian leaders gathered to apologize for 1960's era moderates who had urged king to be patient and not permit direct confrontations. they also urged people of faith today to continue doctor king's anti-racism campaign.

>> we have to come together and say, what is the agenda that we share? for fixing what's broke. fixing broken people, broken families. broken nations. broken cities, broken communities. >> it was in his letter from birmingham jail, that dr. king wrote -- injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. finay, legendary gospel singer george beverly shay died this week at the age of 104. shay became famous as the featured soloist at billy graham crusades. during his 80-year career, he recorded more than 70 albums of hymns and wrote several popular worship songs. in 2011, just before receiving a grammy for lifetime achievement, he spoke with kim lawton. >> someone said, you know, why you going to do this? i put my thumb up in the air and as i hav been doing it, for hymn, you know.

>> they said his faith keeps him going and he sees every day as a gift. >> i don't know when heaven will loom up for me. but we have to look forward to it it. i hope there will be an organ up there to play. i love organ music. >> that's our program for now. i'm bob abernathy. you can follow us on twitter and facebook and watch us any time on the pbs app for iphones and ipads. there's more on our website, including mour of our interviews about religion and the environment and links to additional environmental resources. audio and video podcasts are also available. join us at pbs.org. as we leave you, the boston children's chorus performing at the interfaith prayer service

for victims of this week's bombing. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> announcer: major funding for "religion and ethics news weekly" is provided by the lily endowment, an indianapolis-based private mily fouation decated to its founder's interest in religion, community development and education. additional funding also provided by mutual of america, designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. and the corporation for public broadcasting.